LGBTQIA+ in the Classroom

(Trigger warning: mental illness, bullying, and suicide)

 I will start by describing an incident that happened here in Tennessee from Edutopia, "Pinning Roddy Biggs against a locker, a student whaled on him, giving him a black eye, fracturing his eye socket, and bruising his ribs. It wasn’t a lone incident for Biggs, who came out as gay to his Tennessee high school when he was a freshman". Incidents like these are not uncommon and occur more often than one would expect. Schools do not teach about influential people in the LGBTQIA+ community and most schools do not educate their students about the community. People fear what they do not understand so this community is an easy target especially students. Students in the community have a higher chance of being bullied, having depression/anxiety, being ostracized by family members, and committing suicide. Students in this community attempt and commit suicide in higher numbers than students not in the community. Being in that community is not easy in the United States and then it does not help that they must face this bigotry. To make matters worse, politicians have been banning books related to the LGBTQIA+ community and have banned educators from teaching these topics.  

I have two stories that I would like to discuss. The first one is my story about how I came out. I am bisexual and I came out while I was in high school. During my sophomore year, one of my friends accidentally told someone about my orientation. It was accidental and he had no intention of outing me. After the news had spread around, some close friends of mine stopped speaking to me and spread it even more. I was lucky enough to never be physically harassed but I was verbally harassed by people I had thought to be my friends. My parents heard about this before I could tell them. I honestly had no intention of telling them but that choice was taken away from me. However, I am blessed to have loving and understanding parents that accepted me. This incident was not good for my mental health and it caused me to become depressed, fall behind in school, and it caused me to fear how people might think of me. I have moved forward, growing with the help of others. Although this incident was unfortunate, it showed me who my true friends were and it showed me that my parents were loving and understanding. In high school one of my closest friends was lesbian. She was out a lot longer than I was and she had it a lot harder than I did. Although she was not outed like me, her parents were not accepting of her. To preface, I lived in South Carolina which was not an accepting place for people in the LGBTQIA+ community. During her freshman year of high school, her parents woke her up in the middle of the night and drove her to what she thought was a church camp. She later learned that it was conversion therapy. She was there for several weeks and she went through hell. I cannot imagine having parents that did not accept me and then being sent to a conversion therapy camp. That incident stayed with her and caused her to have several mental health problems. She dealt with this at home and then at school she had to face the bigotry I was referring to earlier. Schools need to do a better job of educating their students, stopping bullying, and need to continue to provide support to that community. Although you may disagree with how this community lives their lives, as teachers it is our responsibility to support our students and to keep them safe.